


ell-double-oh-pee

by gloomyhallway



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Basically Black Friday Didn't Happen, But secret, Character Death, Character Death Fix, Ethan Baby I'm So Sorry You Didn't Deserve This, Ethan Green Needs Glasses And You Cant Change My Mind, Ethan is also a secret nerd, I'll tag the end when i get there, I'm Sorry, Neither Did Lex, Not Canon Compliant, Or Nice Characters, Temporary Character Death, The Green-Fosters Make It To California Because They Deserve It, This Is Why I'm Not Allowed To Have Ideas, Time Loop, he has a reputation to uphold, recurring character death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23784715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloomyhallway/pseuds/gloomyhallway
Summary: Lex Foster moved to California with her boyfriend Ethan and her little sister Hannah to get away from Hatchetfield and their deadbeat mom. They wanted a fresh start. Whatever happened in Cali, it couldn't be as bad as being a high school dropout who worked at ToyZone to keep her alcoholic mom afloat, right?But then the unthinkable happened.And Lex woke up at 2 am on Monday morning, again.And again, and again, and again.Is this a chance to change what seems to be fixed in time?Can she save her little family?
Relationships: California Dreamers, Ethan Green & Hannah Foster, Hannah Foster & Ethan Green, Hannah Foster & Lex Foster, Lex Foster & Ethan Green, Lex Foster/Ethan Green, Lexthan - Relationship
Comments: 16
Kudos: 43





	1. Monday

_“What the fuck is a loop code, babe?”_

_“It’s a code for if someone is ever stuck in a time loop.”_

_“A time loop? Bullshit.”_

_“Don’t you fucking laugh! I’ve never written it down or told anyone, so if somebody knows it, that means they got it from me in a previous loop. Boom. I already know we’re in one, no repetitive explaining needed.”_

_“Wait. That kinda makes sense. Too bad it’ll never be needed, cause time loops aren’t a thing that exist. Dork.”_

Lex’s eyes flew open. Ever since she and her boyfriend Ethan had left Hatchetfield with her little sister Hannah in tow, she’d had stupid fucking dreams. Dreams like the one she'd just had, where her mom finds them, or Hannah gets taken away, that left her sleeping too lightly and too little. She looked at her watch. Monday, two in the morning. She rolled over in their bed, and watched Ethan as he slept, syncing her breathing with his until she drifted off to sleep again.

A few hours later, her alarm went off. Turns out being an actress is a lot harder than it seems, especially in California, where there are so many others trying to make it too. So Lex had to get up for work, and normally to take Hannah to school, too. Still, it wasn’t ToyZone, and no matter how gross the bar smelled or how sleazy the customers were, it was a hell of a lot better than that.

Hannah had settled in really well, and was doing much better after only six months in California than she had ever been doing back in Hatchetfield. The fact that their mom wasn’t a part of their lives anymore meant that Hannah didn’t have to deal with her constant drinking and neglect, and she could be a kid again, for the first time in a long time. She’d even made a best friend, a boy with similar communication problems to the ones she experienced. They got on so well that Hannah had gone to stay with him and his family at their holiday house over half term, for what Hannah had called a “super long super fun sleepover-slash-holiday". Lex was so proud of her but it was strange seeing her baby sister grow up.

As she didn’t have to help Hannah get ready for school, or even make her breakfast, she looked over at Ethan. He didn’t look as peaceful as he had looked in the middle of the night and his face was twisted into a look of what seemed to be pain, so Lex decided that it was a-ok to wake him up and bully him into giving her a lift to work. He didn’t work Mondays anyway. Lex leaned over and poked him right in the eye, only lightly, a failsafe way to wake him up. Except he didn’t wake up. So Lex poked him again, harder this time, to no avail.

“Ethan? Babe?”

No answer.

“Ethan?”

She shook him by the shoulders with all her might, but Ethan didn’t stir.

“Ethan? Ethan?” Her voice was louder this time, growing frantic as she checked his pulse, and if there was anyone around to hear it, they would’ve heard her increasing concern. But the only person around was Ethan, and there was no waking him now. There was no waking the dead.

She realised what was happening and scrambled across the bed to her phone. Her hands were shaking worse than they ever have before and she could barely type in her password but somehow she managed to do what she needed to.

A calm voice spoke from the other end of the line.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Before she knew it, she was wrapped in a tin foil-looking blanket sitting in the back of a parked ambulance. She was in shock, the paramedics had explained. That must have been an awful experience for you, they had said, I’m sorry you had to go through that. Their words were comforting but their tones were pitiful, and their eyes were empty. Lex knew that they were trying to help with all their words, but only one phrase stuck in her head.

“It was a heart attack, I’m so sorry. There was nothing we could do.”

A heart attack.

Nothing we could do.

I’m so sorry.

Nothing we could do.

Nothing.

Lex screwed her eyes shut and tried to let the nothing take her away, but it wouldn’t come.

Then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI I've never written a fic before, but I saw a tumblr post about having a loop code and I couldn't stop thinking about it so I came up with this. The title doesn't make sense yet but it will I promise. This is kind of a short chapter to introduce the premise of the story. I don't know if Americans have half term and I don't care, I refuse to find out more about America. Thank u Emilie for beta-ing i love u.


	2. Monday, still?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or the alternative title: monday 2 electric boogaloo.

Lex’s eyes flew open. She looked at her watch. Monday, two in the morning. She rolled over in their bed and watched Ethan as he slept, syncing her breathing with his as she remembered what had happened. A dream, then, it must’ve been, even though it had felt so real. It must’ve been a very short dream, she could’ve sworn it was this time when she last woke up. Still, there wasn’t really any other possibility. She smiled as she thought of Ethan’s theories about time loops, and his dumb “loop code”, as he called it.

Ethan.

She leaned over and poked him lightly in the eye, and he started awake. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, and grabbed his glasses from the nightstand. They were basic, black things and he didn’t want anybody to know that he wore them, so he wore contacts all the time. This was a side of Ethan that only Lex and Hannah ever saw. He turned to face Lex, glowering but still half asleep.

“The fuck was that for? What time is it?”  
Lex laughed. No matter what she had dreamed, Ethan was still here. Ethan was still as Ethan as ever.  
“Two a.m.”  
“Two a.m? Shit, babe.”

Lex sat up too, cross-legged at the end of the bed like Hannah does on Saturdays, and she just looked at Ethan. After the awful dream she’d had, all she wanted to do was look at him. Take in every detail of his face, soak up his personality. As long as she lived, she wouldn’t let him slip away like he did in the dream, not again.

Ethan put one hand on Lex’s knee, and used the other to tuck a stray bit of hair behind her ear. He kissed her forehead and she smiled.

“Well?” he said, his voice soft, “The fuck was that for?”  
“I had a shit dream, that’s all. I wanted to talk.”  
That wasn’t it, not really, she wanted to make sure he was alive. She wanted to be sure it was only a dream. She wasn’t going to say that though.  
“Wanna talk about the dream?”  
“Absolutely not. Wanna watch a movie?”  
“Absolutely.”

And so the two of them wandered into the living room, where Ethan started looking through their dvds.  
“We need better dvds,” he complained, as he rooted through the cupboard, “most of these are Hannah Banana’s.”  
But Lex wasn’t really listening. She couldn’t stop thinking about the dream.  
“How long do you think dreams last?” she asked Ethan. “Like, in real world time?”  
Ethan turned around to face her.  
“No idea. Why?”  
“It’s just that-” she stopped. “Never mind. It’s stupid.”  
“Bet it isn’t. Tell me.”  
“I woke up earlier, at two in the morning. Then I fell asleep again, that’s when I had the dream. But then, when I woke up, it was two in the morning again. Can you have dreams in under a minute?”  
Ethan looked at her with an unreadable expression. “I don’t know, can you?”  
His face shifted into a different expression, one of “i may or may not be being serious, depending on how you take this”  
“What if it wasn’t a dream? You normally need ages to fall asleep. Sounds a bit like a time loop to me.”  
Lex laughed. “A time loop? You sure about that?”  
Ethan grinned at her. “Well, if this ever happens again, just say ell-double-oh-pee.”  
“And what the fuck is that?”  
“My loop code! Remember that?” Ethan was grinning from ear to ear, clearly quite proud of himself.  
“Your loop code is ell-double-oh-pee? That's just how you spell loop.”  
“No, that’s ell-oh-oh-pee. Ell-double-oh-pee sounds way cooler.”  
“Oh my God, Ethan.” Lex smiled. “You’re such a dork.”

Ethan opened his mouth to protest but the fact that he was wearing his pajamas AND his glasses did nothing in his favour, so he closed it again and put a movie on instead. He plopped down next to Lex on the couch and they sat and watched a few movies. As they joked around and laughed at the stupid jokes, all thoughts of dreams or time loops were forgotten, as were thoughts of anything other than that moment.

At least they were, until Lex’s alarm rang from the bedroom, and the two of them knew that as much as they would’ve like to stay, Lex had to go to work.  
“Wait, babe,” Ethan called after her, as she was about to leave the flat, “I’ll give you a lift, it’ll be quicker.”

The two of them were sat in Ethan’s truck, on their way to the bar where Lex worked, either singing along to the radio or talking about how shit that song is, depending on what song was playing, savouring the last fifteen minutes they had together before Lex’s shift began.  
They got to an intersection, just a few blocks away from the bar, when the car in front of them breaked suddenly.  
“What the fuck is he doing?” Ethan said, then shouted out the window, “Sir? What the fuck are you doing?”

The car in front started up again, and zipped across the intersection as fast as it could go. Ethan stepped on the gas again, cursing the other driver under his breath and moving forward at a _normal_ speed, which made Lex look over at him and laugh.  
But she stopped laughing as she saw another car through Ethan’s window, coming towards them at an alarming rate.  
“Ethan?” she shouted, “Ethan, look out!”  
Ethan turned his head in the direction she was pointing, just as the other car smashed into the side of the truck.  
“Ethan!”  
There was a scream, and Lex didn’t know whether it came from her or Ethan.  
“Ethan? Ethan!?”  
Then, all of a sudden, everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> netflix? never heard of her, the green-fosters have dvds. thank u again Emilie for beta-ing ily


	3. Monday, again.

Lex’s eyes flew open. She looked at her watch. Monday, two in the morning. She rolled over in their bed and watched Ethan as he slept, syncing her breathing with his as she remembered what had happened.

Ethan.

That couldn’t have been another dream, could it? She never normally had more than one dream in a night, so waking up from one and then having two more within a minute seems like a stretch. It could’ve been a dream within a dream, maybe. Dreamception.

Or maybe Ethan was right. Maybe time loops were a thing, maybe she was stuck in one. Can you get out of time loops? Was she going to have to wake up at two a.m. on a Monday forever? Living the same day over and over? How many times was she going to have to do this before she knew for sure?

And then she remembered. Ethan’s loop code. She had laughed at him for it before, but this could be a foolproof way out. No matter how secretly-dorky he may be, Ethan had read more books on time loop theory than Lex could count, he was fascinated by them.

She leaned over and poked him lightly in the eye, and he started awake. He flinched as he sat up, then rubbed his eyes and grabbed his glasses from the nightstand. He turned to face Lex, glowering but still half asleep.

“The fuck was that for? What time is it?”

Lex opened her mouth, then closed it again. Was she really gonna do this? Yes, she had to. Either she was wrong, and Ethan had no idea what she means, or she’s right. And if she’s right, then this could be her only shot.

“Ethan, babe, this is important. Does ell-double-oh-pee mean anything to you?”

Ethan looked at her strangely.

“How do you know that?”

Lex knew then that she had been right. Ethan knew the code, but didn’t know that he had ever told Lex what it was.

“It’s your loop code, right? You told me yesterday. Well, today. The last time around.”

Ethan’s face lit up like a christmas tree.

“You’re in a time loop? A real one?” He paused, and took a second to shift Cool Ethan back into place. “That’s cool, I guess,”

Lex smiled. It was moments like these that made her remember how lucky she was to be so close to Ethan, to get to see all his layers. Still, she had to focus. She had to get out of this loop, and she’d be damned a thousand times over before she left Ethan behind.

“Trust me, it’s nowhere near as fun as it sounds. Do you know how to break it?”

Ethan grinned, and left the bedroom. Lex heard rustling and thudding, and he came back with a pen and paper. He sat down on the bed and looked Lex in the eyes.

“Time loops always have sources and constants. All you have to do is break the constant, and you’re out. Or you gotta find the source, but that’s a lot fucking harder.”

“Ethan, babe, I love you but I don’t know what you mean.”

Ethan said “Okay.” and then paused for a minute, thinking. Then he started up again, excited as ever. “Okay! So, a constant is something that happens every time, like a fixed point, where no matter what you do, it always happens. I don’t know how many times you’ve already done this, but-”

“Only twice,” and hopefully it will only ever be twice, they had to get out of this.

“Okay, so what has happened both times? Everything you can think of.”

Shit. She couldn’t tell Ethan that he dies, could she? It would wreck him. Nobody wants to be told they’re going to die, it must be awful. She couldn’t do that to him. But she had to, didn’t she? But she couldn’t not tell him, because what if he died again, all alone? He needs to know what to expect but on the other hand, he can’t know he’s going to die, it would be awful.

Ethan spoke up again.

“Lex? Whatever it is, you need to tell me. I can’t help you if I don’t know.”

Lex took a deep breath.

“I woke up at two in the morning.”

“Is that the only one?”

“No.” Lex had to do this, Ethan could help her get out. Ethan could help them both get out. “You, uh. You died.”

Ethan stopped smiling.

“I died, huh. Twice?”

“Twice so far.”

“Shit, I’m a time loop constant,” he smiled again, but not as wide as he had before. “Guess all I gotta do is not die.”

Lex told Ethan about both of the other Mondays, and he listened, hanging on to every word. The heart attack, the movies, the songs on the radio, the car crash. Everything, in as much detail as she could remember. He explained to her that to get out, he would have to survive the whole day.

“It shouldn’t be too hard,” he explained, “if we avoid the things we know aren’t safe. So if you wake up at two again, don’t go back to sleep, because we know that path leads to the heart attack, and don’t go anywhere in the car, because it’ll crash. Think of it like those choose your own adventure books that Hannah likes, or a video game. We just need to make it to the good ending, the one where everyone lives.” He looked Lex with so much love in his eyes that it made her feel like she was melting. He didn’t look like he’d just been told he was going to die. He looked like all of this was just a jigsaw puzzle sitting on the floor. “It’ll all be okay. Okay?”

Lex nodded, feeling safer now that she was sure Ethan knew what to do.

“Okay.”

“So,” Ethan was grinning again now, “what do we know is safe to do next?”

And Ethan winced as Lex grabbed his right hand and lead him to the living room.

When Lex’s alarm went off in the bedroom, the two of them bedgrudgingly got ready to leave the house once more.

As they stood shivering at the bus stop, Lex was so cold that she considered just saying “fuck it” and being super careful in the car, but Ethan wasn’t having it. So instead they just stood there, chatting about crazy, borderline ridiculous, situations that Ethan might die in as they waited . To anyone walking past, they would have seemed insane, or miserable, or both. But Lex and Ethan kept on joking and laughing about it, lest they start to cry instead.

“Okay but imagine:” Lex was saying as they climbed into the bus, “a gargoyle that we’ve never even seen before falls on top of you.”

“Ouch,” Ethan laughed, “that’s almost sounds like something out of a book on the Improbable Theory”

“Which theory?”

“No, that’s what it’s called. The Improbable Theory. Basically, if you try and get out of a time loop by stopping one of the constants, the idea is that the Universe will try harder to make it happen like it’s supposed to. So the ways that it happens get increasingly improbable, to go against whatever is trying to stop it. It’s super interesting, if you believe in the universe.”

Lex just looked at him in vague disbelief.

“What? I thought you were on my side about time loops, now that you’re in one.”

“No that’s not-” Lex trailed off, and started again. “This theory says that the universe now wants you dead, and you didn’t think to tell me?”

“Babe, it’s fine. I don’t believe in the Universe-with-a-capital-U. It’s not some kind of almighty power.”

“And I don’t believe in time loops! You’re saying that every time I try to save you, you’re gonna die harder?”

“Pretty much, I guess. The only other constant so far is you waking up, and we can’t change that.”

“Well what about the source? Can’t we find that instead?”

“That would be too hard. The source could be anything. It might not even have anything to do with us, you might just be caught in it. The theory might not even be true, it’s the least possible one.”

“But I don’t want to put you through this, Ethan.”

“I know, but it’s our best shot. We’ll be okay. You, me and Hannah will be enjoying the weekend before you know it.”

Lex was going to answer, but the bus pulled up at the stop a few doors down from the bar where Lex worked, and they got off.

Lex clocked in, said hi to her manager and walked behind the bar straight away. She made Ethan a drink, and paid for it, so that he would be able to stay there. They had to stick together. She sat the drink on the bar and Ethan came up and leaned against it, but grimaced and quickly turned around so he was putting the weight on his left side, instead.

Nothing eventful happened at the bar for a few hours, and Lex was convinced that they’d cracked it. Ethan was right, it would be Saturday soon, and then Hannah would be back. No more loops, no more worrying, just the three of them, together again.

Then a man stood up, knocking his chair over. He was shitfaced, and angry. He started shouting at someone on the next table, and threw a bowl of nuts that landed nearby. Two men on the other table stood up and started shouting back, but the first guy wasn’t backing down. More things were thrown, and other groups in the bar were getting under tables so they weren’t hit.

Lex couldn’t tell who had started it but soon enough two of them were fighting and throwing punches, as the third cheered his friend on. Lex turned to face Ethan, to tell him to go next door until things had calmed down, but he wasn’t there. Ethan had run towards the fight, and was trying to force the two men apart.

“Ethan!” she called, “Stop!”

“I couldn’t-” Ethan got hit, and he hit back. “couldn’t just leave-” he was struggling to pull one of them away, when the third man grabbed a champagne bottle from a table and flung it at the side of Ethan’s head. The bottle smashed as it hit, and the fight stopped as Ethan fell to the ground.

Lex screamed.

She ran towards Ethan and knelt down beside him, shaking.

“Ethan?” she shouted, “Ethan?”

She held his face as his eyes went dull.

Then everything went black, again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry its been so long! ive been busy w homework and stuff. this one isn't beta-ed because i dont wanna bug Emilie rn so tough titty.


	4. Monday, still.

Lex’s eyes flew open. She looked at her watch. Monday, two in the morning. She rolled over in their bed and watched Ethan as he slept, syncing her breathing with his as she remembered what had happened. 

Ethan. 

His voice echoed in her head 

“Think of it like those choose your own adventure books that Hannah likes, or a video game.” 

“It’ll all be okay. Okay?” 

A video game. Or Hannah’s books. That’s all this was. She just had to make it to the right ending. 

She had to wake Ethan up. 

She leaned over and poked him lightly in the eye, and he started awake. He flinched as he sat up, then rubbed his eyes and grabbed his glasses from the nightstand. 

“Shit!” he put his head in his hands. “Ow, fuck.” 

“Ethan? What's up?” 

Ethan turned to face Lex, glowering but still half asleep. 

“Just a headache. Anyway. The fuck was that for? What time is it?” 

Lex looked at him strangely. That hadn’t happened before. Still, he was awake, and that’s what mattered. The next safe place was the living room, so they had to go there. 

“Ethan, babe, listen to me. Ell-double-oh-pee.” 

Ethan looked at her strangely. 

“How do you know that?” 

“It’s your loop code. Why don’t you guess?” 

His face lit up like a Christmas tree. 

“You’re in a time loop? A real one?” 

“Yeah.” Lex interrupted, “Let’s go to the living room, it’s safe there.” 

The two of them sat on the sofa, and Lex told Ethan what they had to do. It broke her heart to have to tell him that he was going to die, again. He didn’t take it as well this time around. He tried to be understanding and brave, but Lex could see the pain in his eyes, the downfall in his expression. She held his face in her hands. 

The pain of what had happened at the bar came flooding back. There had been so much blood, it was everywhere. 

She snapped back to reality and looked at the Ethan in front of her. He was alive. Breathing and talking and so, so alive. And Lex was going to make sure it stayed that way. She’d call in sick and avoid the bar. Even if she got fired for it when the timeline went on, it didn’t matter. 

She swiped her thumb across his bottom lip. 

“It’ll all be okay. Okay?” 

Ethan nodded. 

“Okay.” 

They sat like that for a while, before Ethan got up to put something on the tv. Then they just sat and watched, not caring what they were watching, but caring instead about the fact that they were there together. That was all that mattered until just after dawn, when Lex’s alarm went off. 

Ethan said that they needed to stick to what was safe, so no staying at home. They would take the bus again but stay away from the bar. They’d have a day out instead. Lex called in sick, and they set off together, again. 

The bus ride was still uneventful. Ethan insisted that they get off at the stop before the bar, so as not to get too close, but not the stop afterwards, because that could be dangerous. 

They ended up somewhere they never usually go to, a fancier, more expensive part of town. Hannah would beg them to take her here, she loved the bright lights of the arcade and the cinema. They had come here for her first birthday in California, but they hadn’t been back since. Lex decided then and there that when they got out of this dumb fucking Monday, she’d take Ethan and Hannah out somewhere. Anywhere they wanted to go, just the three of them. 

Until then, all she had to do was keep Ethan safe, and this part of town was the best place to do that. 

The two of them spent the day in and out of various pretty little cafes and bookstores, wandering around in the safest, most comforting places they could think of to be. Lex knew that they seemed out of place, two grubby young adults in this unfamiliar, upmarket world, but all she could care about was Ethan. She watched the way he laughed when she grumbled about overfriendly customer services, and the way he fiddled with the teaspoon that came with his coffee. She pretended not to notice the way he flinched when someone bumped into his right shoulder, or when he took another tablet for his unwavering headache, because she could tell that he was trying to hide them. 

Ethan suggested they start heading back just as the sun started to set, to avoid any unpleasantness in the dark. Lex agreed, and they headed off toward the bus stop when Ethan stood still. 

“We shouldn’t take the bus, it could crash.” 

“But it didn’t this morning, Ethan. We’ll be fine.” 

Ethan looked at her. 

“You haven’t made it this far before, have you? Anything could happen now.” 

Lex knew he was right, but she didn’t want to admit it. She was just so scared for Ethan, and she wished she knew how to reassure him. 

“We’ll have more control if we walk, I promise.” 

And so they walked, hand in hand towards their little apartment on the other side of town. 

When they got to the bridge, Ethan insisted on swapping sides. 

“Trust me, Lex,” he said, “I don’t want to get hit by a swerving car.” 

“I can’t let you walk near the edge, babe. That's far more dangerous.” 

Ethan squeezed her hand in his, and looked her right in the eyes. 

“I’ll be okay. There’s a barrier, I won't fall unless someone pushes me, and there’s nobody else on the bridge.” 

Lex nodded, and swapped sides with him. 

“I’ll be okay.” Ethan repeated. 

Lex heard him, and she wanted so badly to believe him. 

“Okay.” 

It all happened so fast; Lex had only just understood what had happened when everything stopped. 

A cyclist had come hurtling towards them, and knocked Ethan flying over the railings. Lex had been knocked down, too, but she scrambled to her feet and ran to the barrier, only to see Ethan fall. 

She shouldn’t have swapped sides with him, she should have made him get the bus home, she should have been faster, maybe she could’ve caught him. 

No, no, no. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. They were supposed to make it this time. 

The word “no” rattled through her brain like a pea in her skull. 

Then everything became nothing once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello whats up. its has been months since i updated this fic and i. feel so bad. but hopefully it should be completed in the next few days! I'm gonna be uploading my second fic aswell soon, but it won't be starkid related. sorry for the massive break i just. honestly i dont know but we r back at it again! no beta anymore, we die like men and i feel bad about bugging emilie to beta for me because it's been a while and also because i wanna get this finished jhukdagfads


End file.
